Promotion of Renewable Energy

for Water production through Desalination

PRODES NEWSLETTER SPRING 2010

Content

Project Overview p. 3

ProDes progress and plans p. 4

Roadmap p. 5 University courses p. 6

E-learning course p. 7

Courses for professionals p. 8

The consortium p. 9

Contact

The sole responsibility for the content of this document lies with the

authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European

Communities. The European Commission is not responsible for any

use that may be made of the information contained therein.

ProDes brings together 14 leading European orga-

nisations in order to support the market develop-

ment of renewable energy desalination in Southern

Europe. It started on the 1st of October 2008 and

will run initially for 2 years.

ProDes is co-financed by the Intelligent Energy for

Europe programme.

contract number IEE/07/781/SI2.499059

2

Project Overview

ProDes supports the use of renewable energy (RE) in

remote areas where the electricity grid cannot accom-

modate high penetration of intermittent energy sour-

ces. The project focuses on Southern Europe where

desalination is an increasingly important energy de-

mand factor. Using renewable energy to power desali-

nation, either in stand-alone or grid connected sys-

tems, will allow better load control and consequently

wider renewable energy use in these areas.

The project has the following specifi c objectives:

Develop and communicate a road-map on RE-

desalination

Develop courses and provide training for students

and professionals

Facilitate collaboration between RE-desalination

technology providers and SMEs on the local level

Support communication and understanding

between technology providers and investors

Provide recommendations for the improvement of

the legislative and institutional conditions and

communicate them to key decision makers

Familiarize the general public with the technology

and its benefi ts

These objectives are realized through the implemen-

tation of the carefully designed work programme by a

selected group of partners from all over Europe with a

wide range of backgrounds.

Renewable energy driven desalination technologies

3

ProDes Progress and Plans

Within the fi rst year of ProDes a lot of progress has

been achieved. A Roadmap for the sector has been

developed, training courses have been implemen-

ted, databases elaborated and promotional events

organized. Some of these activities are preseted

in the newsletter, while on the project website

www.prodes-project.org you can always read the la-

test news and download the publications and project

results.

In the second year of the project the training activities

of ProDes will continue, while several new activities

will start. Among others, networking events for local

SMEs and technology developers will be organized in

Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

Also the ProDes partners will provide concrete recom-

mendations for improving the framework conditions

suggesting policy tools that could be used to support

RE-desalination. The results will be available on the

ProDes website, including:

Guidelines for raising funds for product development

Report presenting the most promising project

development opportunities

Export market analysis

Recommendations for a fi nancial scheme suppor-

ting RE-desalination

4

Roadmap

The roadmap is one of the main outcomes of the pro-

ject. Its aim is to pave the way for the fast and efficient

development of renewable energy driven desalination.

It has been developed by the ProDes consortium and

an extensive consultation process has ensured that

the views of the RE-desalination community are fully

reflected.

In chapter 1 the status of RE- desalination is descri-

bed. The main options for powering desalination are

presented including energy sources like solar thermal,

concentrated solar power, photovoltaic, wind power,

geothermal energy and ocean energy.

Chapter 2 briefly illustrates the perspectives of RE-

desalination. It deals with the water crisis, the global

desalination market, the status and the perspectives

of RE- Desalination.

In chapter 3 technological, economic, social and insti-

tutional barriers to the development of RE-desalination

have been identified and their impacts are described.

Chapter 4 outlines the strategies needed to overcome

each barrier.

Finally in Chapter 5 resources and activities nee-

ded to implement the strategies are presented. The

recommendations include the coordinated action by

the RE-desalination community, the development of

a comprehensive market study and the introduction

of support schemes. If you are interested in knowing

more about the roadmap, you can download it at the

project website.

Image source: University of Palermo

5

University courses

ProDes introduced RE-desalination in the higher edu-

cation system of relevant countries. In this way we fill

the knowledge gap and the lack of specialists that will

work with entrepreneurs active in this fast emerging

market.

In March 2009 the first Higher Education course star-

ted at the University of Palermo (Italy). About 60 stu-

dents of the Engineering Faculty have attended the

course with enthusiastic response to the topic and

the course structure. The course was included in the

Chemical Engineering degree curriculum and finished

in June 2009 with a visit to a local desalination plant.

It will be offered again in the following years for the

students of the Engineering Faculty,

Furthermore a course has been offered at the Univer-

sity of Almeria, where 25 students have attended it.

Courses for students are also offered at the University

of Lisbon and the Algave University in Portugal, the

University of Las Palmas Gran Canaria in Spain and

the Agricultural University of Athens in Greece.

For more information, please consult the ProDes

homepage: www.prodes-project.org

Image source: CRES

Image source: CRES

6

E-learning course

An e-learning course will be offered as part of the trai-

ning activities of the project. This online course will

be focused on the introduction to desalination by re-

newable energy resources. A set of ten chapters will

present the main ideas about this topic that attracts

more and more interest.

This training initiative is addressed to people intere-

sted in the fi eld: professionals related with water or

renewable energy, students and water managers.

The e-learning action will be based on an interactive

and user friendly approach; the purpose is that the on-

line student is the main leader of his/her own training

process.

The course has been designed to be fl exible: the stu-

dents with high time restrictions will be able to com-

plete it with a minimum dedication of ten hours; on

the other hand, the course will offer several comple-

mentary training options for the students with more

time or specifi c interest.

The e-learning course is planned to be available in

March 2010. Up-to-date information will be available

on the project website.

7

www.prodes-project.org

8

Courses for Professionals

Separate courses for professionals are organized wi-

thin the project, in order to deliver faster results by

training the people that are already active in the mar-

ket.

The first ProDes course for professionals on the ba-

sic principles, the state of art and the most promising

technologies of RE Desalination took place at the

CIEMAT’s Plataforma Solar facility in Almeria (Spain)

from 19. - 21. October 2009.

The purpose of this course was to provide professi-

onals with the latest knowledge of different existing

technologies involving the use of renewable energies

to drive desalination.

Theory lessons were complemented with practical

visits and activities at the experimental installation

of solar desalination on Plataforma Solar de Almeria.

The course was attended by 25 professionals from all

around the world.

A second course for professionals has been organized

on the 11 and 12 December in Palermo in collaboration

with the local Order of Chartered Engineers.

Courses will also be offered in Greece and Portugal.

For more information about the various courses

please visit the project events section of the project

website.

Image source: University of Palermo

The Consortium

A strong team of research institutes, companies and

associations from Europe has been brought together

for achieving the challenging objectives.

WIP Renewable Energies, Germany

CENTRE FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES &

SAVING (CRES), Greece

Università degli Studi di Palermo, Italy

Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia, I. P.

(LNEG), Portugal

Ao Sol, Energias Renováveis, SA, Portugal

Fraunhofer Gesellschaft -Institute for Solar Energy,

Germany

Befesa Agua, S.A.U., Spain

AquaMarine Power, United Kingdom

Hellas Energy, Greece

European Desalination Society (EDS), Italy

Plataforma Solar de Almería, CIEMAT, Spain

Almeco-TiNOX GmbH, Germany

MAGE Water Management Company, Germany

Instituto Tecnológico de Canarias, SA, (ITC), Spain

Capital Connect, Greece

www.wip-munich.de

www.cres.gr

www.unipa.it

9

www.lneg.pt www.befesaaqua.es www.edsoc.com www.mage-watermanagement.com

www.itccanarias.org

www.capitalconnect.gr

www.psa.es

www.almeco-tinox.com

www.aquamarinepower.com

www.hellasenergy.gr

www.aosol.pt

www.fraunhofer.de

10

Contact

For more information about the project please contact us.

Michael Papapetrou

WIP Renewable Energies

Sylvensteinstr. 2

81369 Munich

Germany

Phone: + 49 - 89 - 720 - 12 - 792

Fax: + 49 - 89 - 720 - 12 - 791

E-Mail: pmp@wip-munich.de

www.wip-munich.de

www.prodes-project.org